Criminal defense lawyer Ryan Pacyga offers a tip to families and friends of people that want to post bail or bond for an arrested person. If your loved one is already on probation or parole, you should wait to get some more information before you put money up. Otherwise, you may end up throwing your hard earned money away.
Here's an example: Let's say your family member already served a federal prison sentence, and now they're on supervised release or parole. Police execute a search warrant at their house and they find controlled substances or a firearm. They are arrested on the new offense. Bail is set at $50,000. Your family member wants you to bail him out. You have talked to a bond agent and if you pay them ten percent ($5,000) you can bail your family member out. You pay the money, and you're excited to get them released from jai. But now you find out that the federal probation officer has filed a supervised release violation and a "hold" is placed on your family member. That means your family member is NOT going to be released, and they'll later be brought over to federal court. When they get to federal court, the federal prosecutor (called the assistant United States Attorney) asks the federal judge to hold your family member in detention. The judge agrees. Now your family member is held in federal custody, and you have just thrown away $5,000. You most likely will not get a refund from the bond company.
This does not happen in every situation. I had a case recently where a new client was on federal supervised release and he was arrested on a new offense. I called the federal probation officer (called a "PO"), and asked them if they were going to file a hold. We agreed that if the client did a few things upon release, the PO would not ask for a hold and instead would send a summons. After that, THEN I told the family it was safe to post bond. That way we knew they wouldn't throw their money away.
When a family member or even the defendant contacts me, I ask if they are on probation or parole. If so, I start doing what I can to find out if there is going to be a hold or not. I recommend you get a lawyer that will do that extra legwork when you hire them so they can be smart with your money.
To be fair, there are absolutely some dynamite bond agents out there that are A) smart enough; and B) honest enough, to also watch out for that for you. Those are the type of agents you want. But I've been doing criminal defense long enough to see disasters out there where a bond agent (or lawyer) doesn't think about those things or perhaps even just wants to get their money.
I hope this tip helps you. We all understand that an arrested person wants to get out of jail fast, and perhaps even take chances and avoid going through this analysis. In the end, if you want to take that risk, that's a financial decision for you to make.
If you found this video to be helpful, please let me know by liking it, and feel free to subscribe to my channel.
If you have any suggestions for video topics you would like to see me make, please let me know in the comments below.
I'm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but I handle serious criminal cases in federal and state court from coast to coast. For more information, please check out [ Ссылка ] or call me at 612-339-5844.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
For more free resources, I have created a Facebook group. The group is called Supporting the Falsely Accused in Minnesota. Please check it out here: [ Ссылка ]
Download a copy of our FREE Cheat Sheet ‘How to Protect Yourself Against Criminal Sexual Conduct Charges While Preserving Your Family, Job, and Reputation’:
[ Ссылка ]
Also, if you or a family member needs help with a criminal case, please visit me here: [ Ссылка ]
